An Ode to the Year..... The Time of My Life

Seeing as tonight is the last night of 2008 and therefore closing out my Best Year Ever, I thought I would pay tribute to the adventures that I had. Now, some who have been part of my year will quickly point out that since my "Best Year Ever" started on my 30th birthday, technically December 2008 is outside of MY year, but I felt that this December has been great also and deserves to to be included. So for all my friends and loved ones who will never get to see my fabulous yearbook for my 30th year, here is a quick recap of some of my favorite highlights.



(I know, I didn't put any captions. You will just have to love the video for what it is and let me keep the memories to myself. I deserve one or two secrets of my own.)

It really was the Best Year Ever. I can't wait to begin Part 2.

Happy New Year to all! I hope you have a safe and enjoyable evening.

Like Cats and Dogs

The newest member of our family, Mara Jade

I was unusually productive at work today. I was finally able to untangle a mess that I've been struggling with since May. It felt so good to get it finished that I am treating myself to a guilt-free evening of ignoring the mountain of laundry and overflow of dishes that is threatening to bite me back. As Scarlet O'Hara says, "I'll worry about that tomorrow."

Tonight, I'm puppy-sitting.

My brother got a puppy for Christmas. Actually, to be more accurate, he got a puppy ON Christmas. She's an adorable black lab/boxer mix called Jade who really needed a good home. My brother works in the evenings and his roommates were hesitant about agreeing to having a dog (they have SIX cats and a baby. I guess a dog is too much work) so he drops her off at my house on his way to work and she and I play together until he gets off work. I love watching her play. She's so funny. I really enjoy having her here.

The cat, on the other hand... not so happy about the arrangement.

Here's the thing about my cat: She's an only kitty. I tried not to spoil her, but you know how it is with your only child. And cats are naturally somewhat spoiled anyway. So, she does have a bit of attitude.... Oh, who am I kidding? She's full of attitude. She's a spoiled brat and really hates it when I bring other animals in the house.

Tonight Esther pokes her head around the corner of the stairs to find me sitting on the floor with the puppy. Jade is happily chewing on a rope and I'm trying to get a good picture of her. Esther glares at me with accusation in her eyes, as if I'm a traitor of the worst kind.

"What's she doing here again?" she growls out at me.

"Puppy-sitting. Is that a problem?" I look over my shoulder to find her staring at me as if I've been replaced by a dog-loving pod-person. "Why don't you come down and meet her? She's really sweet and too young to know that she's supposed to chase you. You can train her to do your bidding."

"Hiss!" she replies and runs back up the stairs to the safety of my room. I guess that's a no. Oh well, I tried.

Spending the last four nights watching the puppy has been relatively easy. It's an awful lot like watching the babies in my church nursery. It's amazing how similar babies and puppies turn out to be. Both sleep most of the time, demand all my attention when awake, get around on all fours, put everything in their mouths, and pee a lot. I even use the same voice when I address both. And having Jade here forces me to make some changes in my house-cleaning habits (or lack of). The dog chews on EVERYTHING: electric cords and cables, the cat's toys, my carpet, my blanket, my sweater, my hair, sticks, leaves, scraps of paper left over from my latest scrapbooking project, dust bunnies living behind the TV, the coffee table, my nose.... The first thing I've learned to do is keep my shoes out of the living room. Those are NOT to be chewed on!

When I finally get tired of sitting on the floor watching the dog chew on stuff, I get back up on the couch and go back to my TV show. But apparently, this does not work for Jade. First she tries to get my attention by giving me those oh-so-cute puppy whimpers. But I'm not taking the bait. Then she tries to climb up on the couch to sit with me, but her little puppy legs are too short to lift her all the way up. Suddenly I see her make a gallant attempt to JUMP up, but she misses by a few centimeters and falls back to the ground. Ooohhh, poor baby! I finally take pity on her. I pick her up and set her down next to me where she finally settles down and curls up in a tiny black ball and goes back to sleep. Such a sweet little baby.

Poor Esther. I can hear her upstairs loudly yowling her complaints from the bedroom. I'm really going to have to think about how to make this up to her tomorrow when the dog is gone.

An Introduction (of sorts)

One of the greatest things about the internet is the ability to locate long-lost friends. It's been amazing, all the people I've been able to reconnect with after so much time has past: college buddies, high school pals, my junior high BFF, and surprisingly, even elementary school playmates. Who would have thought it at all possible?

Unfortunately, once the connection has been re-established, the same series of questions surface: "What have you been up to the last (however many number) of years?" and then "What's going on in your life now? Where do you live? What are you doing? Married? Kids?" How do you sum up a lifetime of choices and actions and experiences in one silly e-mail? And even if I could figure out the best way to highlight the path from where we once knew each other to where I am standing today, it takes a lot to rewrite the story over and over again for each individual. There must be a better way...!

Apparently, that's what myspace and facebook are about: staying connected to far away friends. But it's still a lot of work when half your friends find you on one and the other half find you on the other. I suppose I could close one of the two and exclusively report to the other. But think of all the friends I'd have missed out if I hadn't had both set up. No, that doesn't work so well for me. But I still have the problem of blogging on two different venues (well, actually three if you want to include my long-forgotten livejournal that did it's job way back when), not to mention trying to remember where all I need to upload pictures to share.

I think that sometimes having too many options may not be the best thing afterall. Maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing....

Lately my co-workers have been discribing my life as "exciting" and "fun". Not exactly the words I would have chosen, but at least they are entertained and I'm interested. But why should my co-workers have all the fun? Maybe it's time to start writing again, recounting my adventures in life, love, and fairy tales. And then, the next time my friends ask what I've been up to for x number of years, I can just point them in this direction for a summary of who I am today.

But before I can share the adventures of the Deema of today, I need to catch the Deema of yesterday up so everyone knows where she's coming from. So, a brief recap of the past x number of years:

Elementary school, jr. high, first boyfriend, high school, graduation, college in Tennessee, another boyfriend, first apartment with roommates (followed by several other apartments), first real job (hotel), college graduation, cross-country drive back to Washington, more hotel work, new apartment (all by myself), a grown-up job (payroll), a major broken heart, Prozac, "The Best Year Ever" and a new friend who would be the best boyfriend yet except for the fact that we both know we don't want the same things and so we're just expiration-dating (meaning that our dating life has a shelf life that will expire eventually). Oh, and I have a cat.

I think that pretty much catches everyone up, so now we can begin the amusing tale that is the life and times of Deema.